question about shift operator

[Jay M. Libove]

>From article <786 at gtx.com>, by randy at gtx.com (Randy D. Miller):
> I've seen conflicting information about the shift operator in cases
> where operand2 is exactly equal to the number of bits in the object.
> E.g., with a 32 bit int, what must the following do?
> 
>      int n;
>      n <<= 32;

Boy am I confused.

Looking at the above, I read it to be "shift an n-bit integer n bits left"
which would presumably have the following effect:

(let n=8 for simplicity)

i = abcdefgh
shift left one
i = bcdefgh0
shift left one
i = cdefgh00
...
shift left the last time
i = 00000000

Now, why is there any question as to the result?

(One machine test: SCO Xenix 286 v2.2.1 results 0 from

	int x;

	x=0xffff;
	x <<= 16;
	printf("%d\n",x);

)

-- 
Jay Libove		ARPA:	jl42 at andrew.cmu.edu or libove at cs.cmu.edu
5731 Centre Ave, Apt 3	BITnet:	jl42 at andrew or jl42 at drycas
Pittsburgh, PA 15206	UUCP:	uunet!nfsun!libove!libove or
(412) 362-8983		UUCP:	psuvax1!pitt!darth!libove!libove